The title of this post made me think about the best and worst I’ve played this year.

The best:

  • The Case of the Golden Idol. Short and sweet mystery game in the vein of Return of the Obra Dinn. Not quite as good IMO but I still liked it quite a bit.
  • Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Don’t let the IP fool you, this is a really solid turn based strategy game, occasionally with really solid writing. The “dating sim”/downtime parts were surprisingly fun at best and dragged down the pacing at worst.
  • Death’s Door. Really cool, minimalistic, take on a Zelda-like game. Similar to Tunic in a lot of ways. Funny, cute and probably the best game about death I’ve ever played.
  • Moving Out. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much while playing a game as I did with Moving Out. It will always hold a special place in my heart for allowing me to connect and laugh with people I love but don’t get to see very often.

Generally I mostly play games a while after release and based on recommendations I trust. As such there aren’t many real stinkers I can think of (plenty of games that I found overrated though). With that said, here are my worst:

  • Doki Doki Literature Club. With the way this game is set up it’s all about the twist. The problem is that the game it pretends to be until then is incredibly boring. Maybe it would have helped if I wasn’t somewhat aware of what is really is but generally I found this game to be a slog.
  • Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. Games that rely heavily on humor are always hit or miss. Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me in and the actual gameplay was incredibly bare bones.

Thanks for reading! What is your list?

  • @BeaverDonutEnglish
    3•7 months ago

    I played a bunch of the new releases and some older indies.

    Best (in no particular order)

    1. Tears of the kingdom - Game was very good. I can’t imagine going back and playing breath if the wild after this, it improves on pretty much all the gameplay in that game.
    2. Armored Core 6 - This was very fun, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I played through it 4 times to get all the endings (i messed up a choice when trying to get the third ending and had to play through a fourth time).
    3. Starfield - This was really fun for awhile when it originally released. It has some issues, but I really like it.
    4. Factorio - I got super into this during this summer. It’s the best factory game.
    5. Sanabi - Indie released last month. It’s incredibly fun with a touching story. It’s an action platformer where you swing around the levels with a chain arm.
    6. Omori - As a game this is just alright, but it has probably the saddest plot of any game I’ve played.
    7. Signalis - Survival horror indie game that’s like resident evil crossed with dead space, complete with cool eldritch horror vibes.
    8. Library of Ruina - Intense deckbuilding game with an interesting setting. There are a lot of strategies to build decks around that are super viable.
    9. Cassette Beasts - Fantastic indie Pokemon type game that is miles better than anything gamefreak has pushed out lately. Has interesting battle mechanics, a great soundtrack, and a cool throwback art style.

    Worst

    1. Shadow of war - couldn’t get into it. I played the first one when it released, but I just couldn’t get into this one.
    2. Spelunky - I got this one in a bundle a long time ago and decided to boot it up. I couldn’t really get into it and only did a few runs.
    3. Spyro Trilogy - I don’t know why I finished the first two. I don’t think Spyro’s gameplay has aged super well.
    4. Outward - I want to get into this, but the game is frustratingly difficult. I feel like if I play it some more I’ll get it and it’ll be fun, but I don’t like playing to get to that point.
    • @[email protected]English
      1•7 months ago

      Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with Spelunky! I guess it takes a special kind of masochist to enjoy it, but Spelunky 1 and 2 are two of my all-time favorite games, having put several hundred hours into both.

      The difficulty makes the wins feel extremely satisfying to me.